My quilting thoughts and inspirations sprinkled with a glimpse of life down on the farm

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Round Robin 2011

My Round Robin group got together recently for our final official meeting of the year — it was very exciting as we had THE big reveal of all of this year's blocks.
At our first meeting (late January) we had to present a block depicting a saying, poem or similar. That was the last we saw of our own work.
Our bags (containing our original block and our choice of fabrics) went from friend to friend each month. We all made one block for each other, based on the theme depicted in the original block. (There was also an additional challenge each month - to be explained soon in this post...)
Of course rules are made to be broken; someone (who shall remain nameless) hadn't made an original block (she wanted to do an outer border with her saying once all the blocks were made), another someone (who will also remain nameless) made two little mice who will go in the corners of the quilts. We had "The Owl and The Pussy-cat" poem, a Christmas themed story, "When I'm an Old Lady I'll wear Purple" theme, friendship sayings, garden theme, New Zealand theme, and sewing sayings.
So, lots of variety, and lots of fun.
My initial block is the appliqué shown on my sidebar - "I cannot count my day complete, 'til needle, thread and fabric meet".
Below are photos of the blocks my dear friends made for me —
Ans made the first block.  This month's additional challenge was to include an appliqué element.
A big basket of fabrics - without it I cannot sew, stitch or needleturn!
Clever, huh? Love the rolled up fabric!
Jacki was next with this gorgeous spool block. This month's challenge was for a triangle to be included. Challenge well met.
A great way to show my lovely fabrics :-)
Jenny based her block on one from the "Breast of Friends" BOM. I love this one too.
French knots were the challenge - she managed to squeeze some on top
of the 'i's.
 Kerry rose to the 3-D challenge with this clever needlecase— 
Totally functional - and absolutely beautiful!
-See, it even opens!! 
I'm sure you can guess this month's challenge- met beautifully by Kerryn — 
Yes, foundation piecing. What a sweet machine.
Jacki came to Mary's rescue in the next month and stitched a second block for me. The challenge this time was 'quilter's choice' which suited Jacki down to the ground.
Another lovely block and my thoughts exactly!
{Something weird happened at the bottom of the photo - blame the camera,
not Jacki.}
You would be forgiven for thinking we had another challenge of a 3-D block - it wasn't. Janis made a totally original pincushion block - the challenge was to include a circle - I see several here.
Complete with complimentary pins!
Superb!
As the months rolled by, some of us were having trouble coming up with fresh ideas, but Jan came up trumps with her spool block — 
These funky spools are so cool - love how they are done...
One's even filled with thread!
The final month's challenge may have been to include an oblong shape, but as Jan is new-ish to our group, I'll forgive her :-)

So, whew, that's my rather photo-heavy post - aren't the blocks gorgeous and aren't I lucky to have them - and such talented friends. Thank you, Ladies!! My next challenge is to put them together - I have ideas (and fabric) but you know me, it won't happen overnight!!

Thank you for visiting - have a good weekend every-one, and happy stitching :-)

Thursday, October 20, 2011

My Town Quiltshop..and more....

This week I was pleased to finish my second block of the Homespun magazine BOM; The Quilt Shop.
Eager quilters waiting for their class to start

All quilt shops should have a bored husbands chair like this!!

I'm just loving these blocks - they are such fun 'pictures'. [To see more blocks check out the My Town blog - see the link on my sidebar.]
A while ago I showed a block I had done for the charity quilt our Round Robin group is doing. At our get together the other day, we just had to stitch the binding on....
Looking good!
Many hands make light work. Great team effort girls!
Last weekend we converted the horse stable/spare calf pen to a shearing quarters and got the flock in for shearing.
One down.....one to go....
Both girls free of their winter coat.(Apologies to any sheep farmers
out there - they are rather large to be called proper sheep!)
And back out to graze with Mr Piggy.
 And speaking of pigs... here is a Thursday Treasure that makes me smile whenever I see it... When I was about 17 I wagged school for an afternnoon and went with the lady I boarded with to 'Craft' at her church group.... we made pottery 'figures'... the salt pig, still in use at Mum and Dad's is the result.
{It was one of the few times I ever missed school like that...but some of us will do anything for  our craft fix won't we?!}
He is actually more handsome than he appears here....
...and perfectly functional too!
Thanks for visiting, I hope your week is going well, and,
Happy Stitching

Friday, October 14, 2011

Lovely mail.

Mr Postman has delivered two lovely packages this week. This morning a surprise parcel arrived from Clare. I helped her with some pattern downloads and this is how she thanked me :-)
Block roll, scissor case and scissor fob.
Don't you love the cute cat on the scissor's fob? 
It was a very thoughtful and much appreciated gift. Thank you Clare. She has also just started up a blog - to see more of her beautiful work - you can visit her here.
My second excitement with Mr Postman this week was when this beautiful book from Quiltmania arrived. I had been eyeing it up for some time but Josie twisted my arm and made me get it :-)
It is full of gorgeous projects - big and small - made from gorgeous fabric and with lots of lovely appliqué on them. I KNOW I will be making things out of this book.










Well that is my excitement for the day, have a good weekend everyone and thank you for visiting,